A fire spread through Stony Brook University’s Earth and Space Sciences building early Tuesday morning, damaging two laboratories on the building’s third floor.

The building was unoccupied, and no one was hurt. The fire departments of Stony Brook and Setauket arrived on the scene after a fire alarm was automatically set off.

According to Lawrence Zacarese, assistant chief of police and the director of the office of emergency management, the fire may have been caused by hot, flammable tar from the construction work done on the building the previous afternoon.

“We’re not 100 percent sure,” Zacarese said. “There was some roof work done this afternoon and some hot tar may have spilled down into the building.”

Police, firefighters and emergency personnel left the scene at around 1:30 a.m.